The Newcomer
by The Guardian of Timelines
Summary: The Animorphs have a new member. An intelligent teenager named Summer*. She's already become an instrumental piece of the team, and with her help, the Animorphs might just gain a permanent edge up on their enemies... *AU, takes place after book 34


**A/N:**

**I know I haven't really done a lot from stepping outside my comfort genres. Yes, I have a Virals fanfiction, but it's dead in the water really. My main comfort genres are **_**Wings of Fire**_ **and **_**My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic**_**. However, I think I can get behind this fanfiction, since I love the series **_**Animorphs**_**. Now, to try and keep this authentic, I'm going to match the first-person narrative perspective of the actual series, which is very different from my normal first-third combination writing style.**

**This story will probably possibly contain spoilers for unposted events in the Guardians Multiverse, as it is written a long time ahead of the time that **_**Return of the Guardians of Existence**_ **is written at where it's left off currently.**

**Hopefully, I do it justice, and y'all enjoy this story. Feel free to leave a comment about anything I could improve on. Read and Review y'all!**

* * *

My name is Summer.

Just Summer. That's all I can really tell you. Not because I think I'm too cool for my last name; in fact, I'm really attached to it. It's a really big part of what makes me, well… _me_,

No, I can't tell you my last name for a specific reason. Just like I can't tell you how old I am, where I live, or anything else personal about me. Not that you'd really believe me if I did end up telling you; likelihood is you'd probably laugh like it's a funny joke, then call a mental institution when my back was turned.

Trust me, I'm not crazy. My life is crazy, but I'm not.

You want to know the reason why I can't tell you more about myself? It's not because I'm self-conscious, or fearful of being sent to a mental institution, or that I'm even paranoid… although, to be honest, I kind of have become paranoid as of lately.

It's because the fact that Earth is being invaded. Yeah, I know it's a difficult thing to believe, but it's happening. And it's not like all those science-fiction movies, where the aliens come down from spaceships in the sky and flat-out invade in giant armies… well, I guess the part about spaceships is true. The Yeerks do have those.

Sorry, am I getting ahead of myself? What are Yeerks? Well, let me provide the answer for you.

The Yeerks are an alien species. In their natural state, they look like slimy gray slugs. To survive, every three days a Yeerk must return to this pool of sludge and swim around in it, absorbing life-giving Kandrona rays. Without these within a three-day period, a Yeerk will perish. These pools of sludge are known as Yeerk pools.

I've been to a Yeerk pool exactly once in my life. I've heard the cries of despair and watched as unwilling creatures have their head forced down underneath the surface of the pools water. I've watched as the struggling creature suddenly goes still and then calmly gets up once their head has been pulled out from under the surface.

I've watched people lose their freedom to Yeerks. I've watched as humans with free will become nothing more than puppets for the Yeerks to use. These poor people are what we refer to as Controllers. And the fact is, they could be anywhere. You don't know who's a Controller and who isn't. Your best friend, your mom, your chemistry teacher. Any of them could be Controllers.

Who is this _we_ I referred to? Well, we're called the Animorphs. I'm one of the most recent to join; beside me, it's my five new friends⎯Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Marco, and Tobias. They are the original Animorphs, who got their power from a dying Andalite prince named Eflangor. Later on in their fight, they were joined by Eflangor's younger brother, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.

We all just call him Ax for short. It's easier than trying to say his whole name.

The seven of us maintain a guerilla-style war against the Yeerks, hoping to slow them down and eventually drive them off of Earth. It's funny, actually; the Yeerks don't know that we're human. They think we're a band of Andalites who survived the battle the Yeerks and Andalites had in orbit over Earth.

Actually, I can't really say we're _all_ human. One of the key rules of morphing-at least, it used to be- was that you could not stay in a morph for over two hours. If you did, you became what the Andalites call a _Nothlit_\- a person forever trapped in the body of the animal they morphed. Tobias was stuck in his morph as a red-tailed hawk when he was stuck in the Yeerk pool during the Animorph's first major attack on the Yeerks.

However, the meeting we all were currently in today had nothing to do with the Yeerks. Instead, something I had done was the reason for our meeting. Instead of our usual meeting place at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, we had met up in a clearing in the woods that adjoined the property that Cassie and her family owned. All of the Animorphs were there, minus Cassie.

"You're absolutely certain that you managed to do it?" Jake asked me under his breath, and I could understand why he was concerned. Cassie had agreed to act as the guinea pig to test my accomplishment, and she and Jake were in a tight relationship. So if I had made the slightest mistake, the tiniest error…

Jake would hold me accountable for his girlfriend being trapped in morph forever.

"Yes. I double and triple-checked my calculations," I said, my voice holding a lot more confidence than I actually truly felt on the inside. "It's actually remarkable just how closely the technology of the Escafil Device resembles Pyrunian technology. It made it very easy to make the necessary adjustments."

(You speak of Pyrunians as if you know them,) Ax said, speaking in the thought-speak that was the natural way Andalites communicated.

"I know one really well." I said, shrugging. "He taught me a thing or two about their technology."

Ax nodded, his main eyes focused on me while his stalk eyes turned every way, watching for any threat that might come upon us.

"So why exactly did we get dragged out here?" Rachel asked, leaning against a tree, an attitude of impatience seeming to emanate off her.

"You'll see soon enough," I said, trying to hide the shakiness in my voice. I must have done a decent job, for nobody questioned me further.

Nobody except Tobias.

(You're tensing up,) he said to me in private thought-speak. With a quick glance toward him, I glanced back away, before replying back in private thought-speak as well.

(There's a lot of pressure on me to get this right. So I think it's fair for me to be a bit tense.)

When I had been given the ability to morph, I had taken it upon myself to improve it for my own benefit. Using what skills I had, I had been able to replicate the Escafil Device on a smaller, single-person use scale, making necessary adjustments until I was able to modify my morphing power, allowing me to use thought-speak as a human, morph between two morphs, morph at a much quicker and smoother rate, and lastly stay in a morph for as long as I wanted.

After I had done that, I had approached the other Animorphs asking for permission to attempt to modify the original Escafil Device. Reluctantly, they had agreed, and after several weeks of work, I was ready to show what my efforts had ended in.

"You're _sure_ that it will work?" Jake asked me again, and I shot him a slight frown.

"Yes Jake, I'm sure." I replied, before looking back out at the forest and private thought-spoke toward Cassie, whom I knew was out there somewhere.

(Cassie! Whenever you're ready, come back to the clearing we started at!)

Then I bit my lip nervously, hoping I hadn't messed up with any of my calculations like I was certain I hadn't. A few minutes later, a clump of bushes rustled before parting as a wolf padded into the clearing. The canine looked between all of us, not scared at all by our presence.

(Hey guys,) Cassie said in thought-speak. (How's it going?)

"I think some things will be going a lot better once this is over with," Marco said, and unlike most of the time he was unusually serious. Which I understood; this was serious for everyone. It either was the biggest breakthrough we had ever had… or one of the worst failures.

"Agreed," I said, licking my lips, before checking the time on my phone. "Alright. For the record, Cassie has been in morph for exactly three hours and thirty minutes."

(Long past the two-hour limit,) Tobias said in normal thought-speak. I nodded, before looking toward Cassie.

"Okay… demorph now," I said, praying that she would be able to. Cassie nodded her head as much as she could while being a wolf. Then, her form began to swiftly change as she began demorphing to her human body, and since she was a talented morpher to begin with, by the time she was human once more and her morphing outfit was visible once more, Cassie had the finest layer of gray fur covering her body. And then in seconds, that was gone as well.

"It worked!" Rachel exclaimed, and I let out a sigh of relief that I hadn't realized I was holding in.

(Good work,) Tobias said to me in private thought-speak, and I glanced at him with a smile.

"So you've modified the morphing cube permanently?" Jake asked me, and I nodded, despite the slight frown on my face. It seemed like I was the only one who called the cube by its official name; probably because I was one of the only ones who could say it.

"Yeah, I have," I replied. "It's still in my bunker though."

"Then why don't we meet up at the Clinic in an hour or two?" Cassie suggested, then added when Jake looked at her. "It would at least give Summer some time to make any last-minute changes she might need to make."

(Given how easily Summer has managed to alter and modify Andalite technology, I would be interested to see what other changes she would make, if there are any,) Ax said, and I gave a small smile when one of his stalk eyes looked in my direction.

"Okay then. I guess this meeting is officially over," Jake said as everyone except myself, Ax and Tobias turned to head back to Cassie's. "See you three in a couple of hours."

(See you later Jake.) Tobias said, while I gave a slight wave in farewell. After the others had left, I turned toward Ax and Tobias.

"So. Back to the Scoop?" I asked, and even though they didn't answer, I gave a small smile in understanding. "Alright then. Just gimme a second."

Then I began to pull off my outer layer of clothing, eventually getting down to the dark red leotard that I called my morphing outfit. Then, I closed my eyes and focused on a picture of the first morph I had truly ever acquired; a peregrine falcon. And then I felt the changes begin.


End file.
